


an office romance

by astraeus (sirensq)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, The Office AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-17 23:19:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7290115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sirensq/pseuds/astraeus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>emma is only a receptionist and regina is only a saleswoman, but somehow they fall in love from across the office.</p><p>in which regina and emma are basically jim and pam.</p>
            </blockquote>





	an office romance

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys! i had this story half written when i found it in my drafts, so i decided to finish it. i apologize if the pacing/style is a little off -- i tried to edit it to make up for the time gap, and i hope i fixed it. this will have a second part, but for the meantime, enjoy!

_“My first day on the job has been….interesting.”_

_“Would you care to explain, Emma?”_

_“Well, ah, everyone here is nice and David - well, David is odd, but he seems like a good boss. And I’ve met some people here, and even if I don’t know their names, like….that dark haired lady, kinda intimidating - “_

_“Regina?”_

_“Yeah, she’s cool. I thought it would be hard to speak to her, but I grabbed a yogurt and she walked over to my desk and was like, ‘There’s no reason for me to know this, but that is expired, so I suggest you don’t eat that.’ It was cute, actually. Or, not cute, but, uh…to hell with it, it was adorable.”_

—

Emma surveyed the office, tapping her pencil against her desk. Across, Killian twitched, glancing up at her in annoyance. Sighing, he pushed his glasses back up his face, and called out, “Swan, please stop your fidgeting. We already get enough distractions from Graham’s snores.”

In response, Graham snorted loudly and awoke. He rolled his eyes. “Killian, it’s not like you’re getting much done,” he defended, gesturing to the ship in a bottle lying on his desk.

Killian feigned surprise and pushed gently at the fragile ship. “This thing? It doesn’t —“ his mouth clamped shut as the bottle rolled over and the ship crashed inside. He looked up at a glaring Regina and his face grew white as he scrambled to fix the ship.

“Shut up, boys. Get your work done before Charming returns from his stroll with his beloved,” Regina snapped.

Emma shot her a grateful look before a shrill ring filled the air. “Dunder-Mifflin, this is Emma.”

“ _Emma! Oh my god, oh my god, you won’t believe it. Get Regina, too, please._ ”

Emma scribbled a note on a post-it. “ _David just - he just proposed to me!_ ”

“Congratulations,” Emma replied evenly, holding the note up and pointing at Regina. Regina walked the few steps to lean over the desk as Emma turned the phone toward her. Snow’s loud, enthusiastic voice was easily heard. “ _I can’t believe it! We’ve only been dating for four months, but I’m certain he’s the one for me. Oh, I’m certain!_ ”

“That’s amazing, dear,” Regina said dryly.

“ _I know! He wants to get married soon, and I told him I would elope with him if we wanted, but I really want a nice wedding, big or small, I don’t care, but anything really. I just want to be Mrs. Mary Margaret Blanchard Charming, but that’s so many names? I’m not sure…_ ”

Regina leaned next to Emma’s ear. “Why have you made me endure this?”

Emma shivered slightly, but smirked. “Why should I have to go through this alone when she wanted both of us?”

Regina scoffed, but a smile crept onto her lips. “Well, Mary, have fun with David. We would like to get back to work to make up for your absences at the moment.”

“ _Oh, yes! Goodbye Regina! Bye Emma! Oh, Emma, put David down for a half day, he’s like a prow-ling animal right —_ “

“Goodbye MM!” Emma screeched, cutting the woman from human resources off abruptly. She slammed the phone down, sighed, and turned back to Regina. “Why does she always make that comparison?”

“I have no idea, dear. It’s quite frightening.”

Emma shook her head. “Hey, what are you doing tonight?” she asked, changing the subject.

“I have nothing to do tonight, why?”

“Oh, it’s just, Lily offered to watch Henry tonight, so I figured we could…maybe we could hang out?”

Regina seemed taken aback, so Emma backtracked. “It’s just…we’ve become good friends over the few months I’ve been here and we’ve never done anything outside of work before? It would be fun. Of course, if you don’t want to, it’s no big deal, I just thought I’d offer.”

“No, dear, it’s fine. I just didn’t see why you wouldn’t want to have a night in with your fiancé and son.”

“Neal knows I need a break sometimes. He said it would be nice if I had a night to myself. He’ll probably go out with his buddies from the warehouse.”

Regina pondered this for a moment. “Meet me at my house at seven. I’ll make dinner.”

Emma grinned. “Alright,” she agreed and watched Regina turn and walk back to her desk. Her eyes remained on the backside of the tight pencil skirt the entire way.

—

_“How did last night go?”_

_“How did what go?” Emma avoided, her face too bright for so early in the morning._

_“You know what I’m talking about,” the cameraman grumbled._

_“Oh, me hanging out with Regina! It was fine…fun, really! Regina made lasagna that was to die for, and I basically ate until I was ready to burst. We had wine and got a little drunk, but not too drunk, and we fell asleep on the couch together. It was too late to go back home by the time I woke up so she gave me her shirt. She drove me into work.”_

_“What about Henry?”_

_“Oh, Neal came home early to watch him. Apparently, Leopold, the warehouse boss, ordered all of the men to go straight home after work. I think there was some incident last time a guy — Leroy, I think — came in hungover? I dunno.”_

—

_Graham seated himself in front of the cameras and crossed his legs. “Why am I here?” he questioned._

_“Notice anything odd about today?”_

_“No, why?”_

_“Nothing especially odd?”_

_“No? I came into work at my usual time, Emma and Regina walked in together, Killian came in late, Mary Margaret and David came in together and showed an insufferable amount of PDA.”_

_“Emma and Regina walking in together didn’t raise any alarms?”_

_“Oh, no. Although Emma was wearing Regina’s shirt. I didn’t expect them to be so blatant about it.”_

_“About what?”_

_“The fact that they’re fucking.”_

—

“Regina, love, pass the phone over.”

Regina gritted her teeth. “And what, pray tell, are you going to use my phone for?”

Killian grinned. “I must order a present for the lovely lass’ first year!”

“Emma?”

“Yes, the ever graceful Swan.”

“Are you finally making a move, Mr. Jones?”

Killian looked confusedly at her and leaned in closer. “Would you like me to make a move?”

Disgusted, Regina reared back and grimaced. “I do not believe she would appreciate it.”

Killian’s lips morphed into a smirk. “I know you have the young one tied down at the moment, so I won’t swarm her with my charms.”

Regina snorted, flipping through a few of the documents in front of her. She paused for a moment in the middle of one. “Tied down?”

“Yes, Mills. Tied down - in more ways than one,” Killian suggested. He winked filthily at her.

“She’s dating Neal.”

“Did that ever stop you and I before?”

“I hope you’re not insinuating we ever had sex.”

“No, lass. I’m saying you shared Tink with me without ever saying a word,” he replied smartly, “Not that I minded.”

Regina’s cheeks grew warm. “This conversation is ending right now,” she declared, just as Emma walked into the lounge area.

“Oh, what office gossip are we going on about today?” Emma inquired. Regina shot Killian a warning glare.

“We’re discussing Regina’s past conquests, such as my former fling.” Killian looked amused as Regina choked.

“Killian, I had no idea you were gay! If I had known — “

“No, no, Tink was my old fling. Although, I am certainly…open to anything,” Killian said suggestively, wriggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Regina rolled her eyes. “It was one time. I have no desire to speak of this anymore.”

Emma gaped at Regina. “You — you like women?”

“Yes.”

“…Okay.”

—

_“I had no idea Regina was gay! If I had known — if I had known, I’d…” Emma paused, looking frustrated._

_“You’d have what?” the interviewers prompted._

_“I’d have…done nothing. She’s my best friend. I just thought she would have told me, you know? It’s kind of sad to hear it from Killian, of all people, even though I know him and Regina have some weird friendship going on? I don’t know. He outed her, which was kinda a dick move.”_

_“Are you going to tell Neal about Regina?”_

_“I would never out her. Neal doesn’t even know about me, let alone — fuck, can you please cut that part out?”_

—

Emma wearily stepped out of her soccer mom van. She took a sip from her coffee cup, finished it, and lazily threw the cup through the passenger seat window. The seat, covered in numerous stains, thankfully caught the emptied cup. Her son, however, deemed it necessary to criticize her actions: “You and Dad are two peas in a pod, really.”

She winced; their argument last night certainly did not imply that. “Where do you think I learned how to trash a stolen car?” she replied, flashing her ten year old a grin.

“Ma, I was with you when we bought this van.”

“You sure?”

Her son rolled his eyes and changed the subject. “How long am I going to be at work with you?” he asked, sidestepping the bright red sports car, the Jolly Roger, sprawled across two parking spaces (which obviously belonged to Jones, but she still had not yet commented on it).

“Until your dad leaves. He’s on lunch break right now and then has to finish some stuff up in the warehouse, but he’ll be right up.”

Henry nodded, his brunette hair bobbing up and down. “Alright, what can we do in the meantime?”

Emma snorted. “Oh, you have no idea.”

—

After she had settled Henry into an extra chair behind her desk, David ventured outside of his office to meet the newcomer. He circled the desk a few times (in what he most likely assumed was a stealthy, surreptitious copying job that she usually did for him) and came to a conclusion.

“I like the boy. Is he an intern? What’s his name?” David asked in a rush.

Emma stared. “Intern?”

“Yeah, he looks just like Ryan, our old intern. He moved to that Scranton branch though, so I think we were supposed to get a new one.”

Emma stared again. “He’s ten.”

“Wow, they’re starting ‘em young now,” David said under his breath. “Hi Ryan, I’m your new boss! We can’t pay you that well, or even at all, but you can meet us and that’s all the payment you’ll ever need!” He grinned. “This lady here is Emily —“

Emma sighed. “Emma.”

“Shit, sorry, shit. Emily Emma…what kind of name —” He trailed off briefly, “is our receptionist here.”

“I know,” Henry replied swiftly, cracking a smile at the severely-mislabeled Charming.

“Well, guess we got a know-it-all over here. You’re fired,” David responded flatly, frowning deeply. For a moment, the office went silent and shocked looks flitted over to the receptionist desk to gauge Emma’s reaction.

After a few moments, David smiled widely. “I had you guys going! I’m not that dumb.” He walked back to his office. “I would never fire an intern for something as mundane as that.”

—

Finally, after hours of what was shared glances from across the room, Regina stood up. She was reluctant to speak with Emma at her desk as she usually did. In fact, she felt a little intimidated; her ten year old watched everyone like a hawk, and his gaze seemed to linger on her longer than anyone else. His eyes, a hazel swirl, trained her consistently, to the point that she would shift in discomfort. She hadn’t felt so judged since her teenage years with her mother.

As she walked to Emma’s desk, though, Emma excused herself to the bathroom. Regina considered trailing her for a moment and simply speaking to her in the break room, away from the dark eyes that seemed so fixated on her. Instead, she gathered up her courage to speak directly to the young boy she had heard so much about. She was a successful saleswoman; she could deal with a boy of that age.

“Hi — Henry, is it?” she greeted.

“Hi, Regina.”

She had not introduced herself. She wrung her hands and wiped them (were they clammy?) gently on her pencil skirt. “I’m a friend of your mom here at work. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

His eyes were calculating — not cold, but not warm either. “I’ve heard a lot about you. Ma talks about you a lot,” he said evenly.

Regina fought off a blush. She would not grow flustered from the words of a ten-year old. “I heard you are a fan of reading?” she ventured.

Henry lit up, a stark contrast to his previously-reserved aura. “Yeah! I’m reading a lot of classics right now. I’m a little, uh, ahead. I like Austen, Twain — I just started Huck Finn, actually…”

Amongst it all, Emma watched, sipping on a hot chocolate from the break room. Somehow, Regina managed to sell herself to Henry with her knowledge of books. And somehow, Henry managed to sell himself right into Regina’s heart, too.

—

_“How did you feel about bringing Henry into work?”_

_Emma blew out a breath. “It wasn’t what I originally wanted to do, but our babysitter wasn’t available. I had no choice.”_

_“How did it go?”_

_She beamed. “It went great. Henry really hit it off with my coworkers. It was great for him to finally meet her — them, I mean. Look, his father’s almost up to pick him up, so I have to cut this short.”_

_Emma removed the mic frantically. “About last time….”_

—

  
_“How did work go while Henry was there?”_

_“It went fine. He is…remarkable.”_

_“How so?”_

_“Well…he’s a lot like his mom.”_

_“And Emma? She’s remarkable to you?”_

_Regina’s eyes crinkled and danced, alight with something other than praise. “I believe so, yes.”_

_The cameraman smiled knowingly, then changed the subject. "How was the interview with Jan yesterday?”_

_Regina straightened. “I got the job. In Pennsylvania.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I leave in three weeks. Are we done now?”_

—

Neal stumbled up the stairs, grasping at railings as he went. His buddies cheered on his intoxication, or at least they had when he was downstairs, so he was wired. His blood pulsed irritatingly in his head, pounding his skull but dulling his pain. He tucked his head into her arms for a moment and paused at the door of Dunder-Mifflin, where he could plainly see his family speaking very closely with Regina.

He scowled. Remembering Graham’s words at lunch, he took the last swig of beer and pushed open the glass doors. “Regina fucking Mills, you have some nerve.”

—

Regina paced the outside of the Christmas party, her last Storybooke Dunder-Mifflin adventure. In a week, she would be gone. She really needed a cigarette, at least a single drag. Instead, she turned up the music on her earbuds and drowned out her desires.

A shock of yellow greeted her. As it turned out, all of her desires could not be drowned out by immersion in music when the desire was her best friend. “Emma,” she whispered reverently.

“Hi.”

Regina cleared her throat and tugged at her collar. “I’m sorry about what happened.”

“No need.” Emma brushed her hand against the healing bruise on the side of Regina’s face. “It wasn’t your fault. Neal is a dick.”

Regina didn’t respond.

“I broke up with him, finally. He’d been more jealous of me lately; apparently, there were some rumors going around about us, of all people.” Emma forced out a laugh. “Absurd, isn’t it?”

Silence. And then, there wasn’t: “I’m leaving.”

“Because of Neal? Regina, he’s not worth that.”

“No, Emma, I’m not leaving because of that. I got an offer to take over Scranton’s branch as Regional Manager.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m…happy for you, Regina. I wish you would have told me earlier, though. I could have thrown you a party of some sort. Hopefully not as bad as this one, though.”

Regina removed both of her earbuds and sighed. “Emma, what do you really want from life? Where do you see yourself in five years?”

Emma seemed taken aback, but she considered the question. “I dunno,” she replied, “Maybe raising Henry and going back to school?”

“Is there anyone else in this scenario?”

Images flashed through Emma’s mind — Regina helping her move her stuff into a new apartment, Regina calling her while she’s away at school, Regina taking care of Henry, Regina comforting her. “Yeah, you’re there.”

Regina choked back what sounded suspiciously like a sob. “I am?”

“Yeah, you’re my best friend. What do you expect?”

Regina shook her head. “Emma, that’s not…it’s not what I want.”

“You won’t be there for me? I know you’re leaving, but Jesus, Regina, I thought we would at least keep in touch.”

A watery laugh escaped Regina. “You don’t get it, do you?”

“Get what?”

“I’m so in love with you.”

Regina's lips crashed into Emma’s, devouring her as if it was her last meal. In many ways, she believed it to be so. Her hands grasped desperately at Emma’s face, willing her to feel the same way.

Emma pulled away and took a step back. “Regina, I don’t… I don’t feel that way about you.”

Regina nodded, eyes tinged red with tears. “It’s okay, Emma.”

“Look, Regina, I still —“

“I don’t.” Regina took a deep breath, willing herself to sound collected. “I can’t handle only being your friend anymore, Emma, I’m sorry. Everyday, I want more. I don’t mean to be selfish because I value you so much, but I yearn for you, and if it is not reciprocated, I think it is unhealthy for us, in any capacity, to continue. I'm sorry, Emma."

Tear-stained faces stared at each other. The one who had the courage to take the plunge walked away.

—

_The backup camera crew in the offices upstairs sat, drinking to the tune of their own party. As they watched, a lone figure entered the room in a hurry, oblivious to their presence. The blonde dialed a number, her sobs wracking her body as she heaved for air between them._

_“Granny….yes….I’m upstairs. Look, I-I need to talk to you about Regina.”_

_The camera crew signaled for a quick set-up with the backup camera at the mention of Regina. They felt a bit guilty for their intrusion, but Emma had forgotten to take off her microphone in her haste._

_“She just told me she loves me.”_

_Behind Emma, the door creaked open to reveal the brunette saleswoman. Emma turned to look at her and put down the phone._

_“Regin —“ Four of Regina’s steps later, they were kissing, Emma gently pinned against her desk, Emma’s hands roaming in Regina’s dark hair, Emma’s bare toes curling involuntarily._

_“I love you so much,” Regina whispered, and let her go._

_Emma’s knees gave out and she crumpled to the floor, resting her head against the solid wood. Regina, meanwhile, retreated down the stairs and out of Emma’s life._


End file.
